Greg Sterling

Posts by Greg Sterling

December 10, 2018

Location & Privacy: Waiting for the Other Shoe to Drop

During the Place Conference New York, we had two great discussions about privacy and location. There was little unanimity, however, with some speakers arguing that forthcoming US privacy rules would not be as burdensome as Europe and others asserting that California’s new law as well as anticipated federal rules would significantly impact digital marketing in the US. Privacy has long…

Contributed by: Greg Sterling

December 6, 2018

The Most Interesting Parts of Moz’s ‘State of Local SEO’ Report

Recently Moz (and Darren Shaw) released the 2018 Local Ranking Factors survey. Moz also published the “State of Local SEO” report. The findings are based on a survey of roughly 1,400 local marketers, representing agency and in-house marketers from both small and large organizations. SEO used to be the top digital marketing focus for most small businesses (ranking in Google search…

Contributed by: Greg Sterling

November 28, 2018

Other than Amazon, E-Commerce Winners All Traditional Retailers

Early on many traditional retail organizations set up their e-commerce divisions as completely separate from their stores. The perception that online and offline retail are binary or mutually exclusive and in competition has persisted to this day. But consumers are more agnostic and fluid in their behavior, increasingly buying both online and in stores. This…

Contributed by: Greg Sterling

November 27, 2018

Echo Dot’s Big Black Friday: Are We in a ‘Voice First’ World Yet?

According to Amazon, the best selling product on its site this past weekend was Echo Dot. The company said, in a press release: “Biggest holiday shopping weekend ever for Echo devices, with millions sold worldwide—all-new Echo Dot was the #1 selling product on Amazon globally, from any manufacturer, in any category.” This was echoed, so to speak, by at…

Contributed by: Greg Sterling

November 21, 2018

Study: Local Shopping’s Built-in Advantages

CoW-11-21-18-in-storeShopping-1.1_Resized

Consumer shopping habits have never been more complex than they are today, with shopping patterns now more fragmented and elusive than ever. And while some marketers believe (or want to believe) traditional shopping is dying, stores remain important for large numbers of consumers. A recent study from Oracle Bronto revealed the reasons why. The study,…

Contributed by: Greg Sterling

November 20, 2018

Survey: SMBs Know They Need Tech but Struggle to Make Right Choices

Software reviews portal Capterra recently sponsored a survey of 715 small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) to determine their attitudes toward technology investment and adoption. The survey, which included small and larger SMBs, showed that most are aware of the importance of new technology but many hesitate to invest, in part because of a fear of…

Contributed by: Greg Sterling

November 16, 2018

Ahead of ‘Cyber Week,’ Most Consumers Still Prefer Stores

While holiday sales have already begun, next week is the much-anticipated official start to the holiday shopping season. Analysts and pundits will be watching the numbers during “cyber week” to track e-commerce growth. A generally good economy promises increases for both online and offline retail. However, there are multiple projections that a higher percentage of consumer budgets…

Contributed by: Greg Sterling

November 14, 2018

What Percentage of ~$50B in Digital Ad Revenue Is ‘Local’?

Earlier this week the IAB released its half year digital ad revenue report. The IAB estimated that US digital revenue was $49.5 billion for the first half of 2018. That compares with $40.3 billion a year ago. Mobile advertising was responsible for nearly 63% of the total, up from 54% a year ago. Desktop revenue was roughly 37%. That…

Contributed by: Greg Sterling

November 14, 2018

Google My Business Looks Increasingly Like ‘CRM Lite’ for SMBs

One can make the argument that Google My Business (GMB) has evolved from being a “listings management” tool to something much more like a lite CRM platform for local business owners. The company introduced a new version of its GMB app for business owners this morning. The company has increasingly referred to its own local…

Contributed by: Greg Sterling

November 13, 2018

Survey: 70% of B2B Buyers Still Want to Talk to Live Sales Reps

I wrote yesterday about Adam Blake’s presentation at the Tech Adoption Summit, where argued that traditional inside sales no longer works and that companies should adopt a product-qualified lead approach to the SMB market. Underpinning his argument was data showing the cost of customer acquisition has been steadily rising. Many companies over the last decade have shed sales reps, especially…

Contributed by: Greg Sterling